Welcome to NeoOffice developer notes and announcements
NeoOffice
Developer notes and announcements
 
 

This website is an archive and is no longer active
NeoOffice announcements have moved to the NeoOffice News website


Support
· Forums
· NeoOffice Support
· NeoWiki


Announcements
· Twitter @NeoOffice


Downloads
· Download NeoOffice


  
NeoOffice :: View topic - Future of Java, Other Issues
Future of Java, Other Issues
 
   NeoOffice Forum Index -> NeoOffice Releases
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
gbh
Councilperson


Joined: Jul 28, 2007
Posts: 172

PostPosted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:33 pm    Post subject: Future of Java, Other Issues

1) I have variously read that Apple is working to abandon Java. What are your views on this and the outlook for NeoOffice long-term?

2) How does the recent breaking apart of LibreOffice from OpenOffice, and the transfer of OpenOffice to a new foundation say about the future of the OpenOffice platform long-term, as well as NeoOffice which is a variant?
Back to top
sardisson
Town Crier
Town Crier


Joined: Feb 01, 2004
Posts: 4588

PostPosted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 2:13 pm    Post subject:

This thread probably needs to move to another forum (Random Whatnot?) since it's not a support issue, but I'll let Patrick decide where the best place is.

Regarding your questions specifically, while Apple is no longer going to ship new Java releases as part of Mac OS X, they haven't abandoned Java entirely. They've released (some?) code to Oracle's OpenJDK project and their Java engineers are participating in OpenJDK development for Mac OS X.

So to some extent, it means the Java situation on Mac OS X will be "better"--less tied to Apple release schedules and less delay in getting bug/security fixes, but it also means that the integration and quality could suffer (AIUI, Apple's Java impl used a lot of private APIs and such, which Oracle/OpenJDK might not be be able to get away with using as easily).

As for the other question, it seems like LibreOffice is going strong, and so long as the corporations that currently support LO continue to want to do so, it should be in good shape. I personally tend to think Apache OO is dead in the water, but maybe IBM will yet make something of it; remains to be seen. Razz

My understanding is that the next NeoOffice update will move to the latest stable LO release as a basis, but I can't find right now where Patrick actually said that, so…

Smokey

_________________
"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Back to top
pluby
The Architect
The Architect


Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949

PostPosted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 4:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Future of Java, Other Issues

Smokey covered most of the points already but below is a more data to support what Smokey has mentioned:

gbh wrote:
1) I have variously read that Apple is working to abandon Java. What are your views on this and the outlook for NeoOffice long-term?


Apple released this joint press release with Oracle within the last year. Basically, the gist of the press release is that Apple is transferring maintenance of Java for Mac OS X to Oracle.

For Mac OS X Lion and earlier, this change will have no effect on NeoOffice. For the next Mac OS X version (probably a couple years from now), we will likely need to bundle Oracle's or the OpenJDK version of Java with the NeoOffice installer and install Java if your machine does not already have it installed. This approach is how OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice both handle the Java requirement on Windows and Linux (neither operating system bundles Java like Mac OS X has done).

gbh wrote:
2) How does the recent breaking apart of LibreOffice from OpenOffice, and the transfer of OpenOffice to a new foundation say about the future of the OpenOffice platform long-term, as well as NeoOffice which is a variant?


I agree with Smokey that LibreOffice is going strong. While I believe their number of developers is overstated, Novell has been funding a dedicated staff of 10 or so software engineers who all work full-time on LibreOffice.

While Novell's LibreOffice engineering staff is a lot smaller than Oracle's OpenOffice.org staff was, my impression is that Novell's LibreOffice has a lot of experience with the OpenOffice.org as they have been working on that code under the old Go-oo project for several years before the LibreOffice project formed.

Smokey is correct that our next planned upgrade to NeoOffice will be to a recent LibreOffice version. Since the current version of NeoOffice is based on the OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 code plus the Go-oo project's code modifications, upgrading using the LibreOffice code is the logical path for NeoOffice.

Patrick
Back to top
pluby
The Architect
The Architect


Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949

PostPosted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 12:37 pm    Post subject:

One additional note about Java: Apple is still actively holding up its promise in that press release. As you might have already seen, Apple released a Java system update in the last few days for both Snow Leopard and Lion to fix some small bugs in Java.

Also, a common complaint on the web is that Apple does not release the latest, greatest version of Java that Oracle has available for Windows and Linux. For NeoOffice, however, that is not an issue as our code only uses the features that have been in Java for many years and, where possible, we use native Cocoa code to implement features that only exist on Mac OS X.

Patrick
Back to top
ovvldc
Captain Naiobi


Joined: Sep 13, 2004
Posts: 2352
Location: Zürich, CH

PostPosted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 1:12 pm    Post subject:

I don't know if Apache OO will ever make it out of the incubation stage, but the code license review they are doing now will be useful to all sides, at least.

Ideally, both roads will eventually meet again, but politics may get in the way there..

Best wishes,
Oscar

_________________
"What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Back to top
Display posts from previous:   
   NeoOffice Forum Index -> NeoOffice Releases All times are GMT - 7 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum

Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group

All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. The comments are property of their posters, all the rest © Planamesa Inc.
NeoOffice is a registered trademark of Planamesa Inc. and may not be used without permission.
PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2005 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL. PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.